Alibaba and Ant co-founder, Jack Ma, who had been reported missing for the past few months, has resurfaced with a video in which he said, “We’ll meet again after the epidemic is over.”
In a video meeting with rural teachers in China on Wednesday, Jack Ma congratulated teachers supported by his charitable foundation.
“Recently, my colleagues and I have been studying and thinking. We made a firmer resolution to devote ourselves to education philanthropy,” he said in the video. “Working hard for rural revitalization and common prosperity is the responsibility for our generation of businessmen,” he added.
The video appeared on Chinese business news and other websites, which he made no mention of his absence from public view and scrutiny of his Alibaba Group and Ant Group by regulators.
“Recently, my colleagues and I have been studying and thinking. We made a firmer resolution to devote ourselves to education philanthropy,” he said in the video. “Working hard for rural revitalization and common prosperity is the responsibility for our generation of businessmen,” he added.
Reports quoted Jack Ma as wishing teachers and telling them that the event, usually held in Hainan, had to be online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We cannot meet in Sanya due to the epidemic,” he said in the speech, which did not discuss his whereabouts.
“When the epidemic is over, we must find time to make up for everyone’s trip to Sanya, and then we will meet again!” he said in a hopeful tone.
Ma was last seen in public after criticizing financial regulators in an October 24 speech at a Shanghai conference. Days later, regulators suspended Ant’s planned multibillion-dollar stock market debut, prompting speculations on the internet about whether Ma, China’s biggest global business celebrity and a symbol of its tech boom, had been detained or might face legal trouble.
